TESTED: Feedback Sports Omnium trainer
A trainer is for more than getting some time in during the winter months - they can be part of racing at your best on race day as well. The Feedback Sports Omnium is the most compact trainer we have seen.
The season for indoor trainers has come, and is almost gone. Often the choice for riders who need to keep their hours on the bike up during the darker and cooler months, putting your bike on a trainer to stare at a fan, a wall, or perhaps something on Netflix, is rarely fun.
The arrival of Zwift and smart trainers has turned sitting on a trainer into a video game experience – but is training the only remit for an indoor trainer?
Go to any XCO race, elite downhill race, and select other events, and you will see riders warming up on trainers in the pits. Quite often, they will be on rollers, where the bike must be balanced by the riders as they ride their bike, and they use a mix of high cadences and gear ratios to get the warm up they need. Best of all, they can take their bike straight off the trainer and go into the start chute.
A set of rollers is cumbersome to travel with, and awkard to move around. But Feedback Sports have developed a portable set of rollers – sort of. With a fork mount at the front (compatible with quick releases and 15mm through-axles in 100 or 110mm widths) the back end has two stubby little rollers for your wheel to sit on. The length of the unit is adjustable, and the fork mount is on a pyramid style base – so it's stable. Packed up it weighs 6.21kg.
The drums are alloy so will last a long time, and run on proper bearings for smooth (and quiet) operation. They have built in magnetic resistance, and while it might not be what you're after for serious strength sessions, they do offer a great load as speed increases.
So while you do need to remove your front wheel to mount your bike, you steer clear of any issues with clamping frames, which is increasingly impossibly with most frame designs and thorugh-axles for rear wheels. The whole unit is also far lighter than a direct drive trainer, or a set of rollers – and more compact.
In short – while the Omnium will be great for training, it is a class leader as a trainer to take to races, be it in the back of the car, or even as part of your luggage. It folds down and packs in bag about the size of a trumpet case, and the setup is a little more friendly towards uneven ground than a normal set of rollers.
And Zwift? If you're keen – you can still play along if you have a power meter on your bike. It's just not the same as smart trainer which will change resistance for you.
This isn't a product to end the need for any other trainer – and it won't work on your balance like a set of rollers will, but if you are targeting race results, don't have the room at home to set up a 'Zwift cave' with your smart trainer, and don't want to travel without rollers, this trainer could be the ticket.
RRP: $749
From: echelonsports.com.au
